Robert Abboud, RGA president, and Ron Chin, vice president, spoke to 110 community members and elected officials at the Carlton Town Hall.

Abboud said his company approached owner Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va., in November 2012 about buying the plant. Dominion has shown no interest in selling the facility. Abboud urged community members to contact legislators and share their views about what they want to see happen with the plant.

"The real power is in the community and the elected officials," Abboud said. "If it is going to happen, it will because the community demands Dominion re-look at this issue, and I think Dominion owes it to them."

Town of Carlton Supervisor Steve Tadisch said the town is looking into alternatives to shutting down the plant, including the best-case scenario of facilitating a sale and generating power again.

The Nuclear Regulator Commission has said the plant would have to be re-licensed as if it was new.

"Dominion no longer has a license to operate Kewaunee. In order to bring the plant back online, a company would need to submit an application to the NRC for an operating license," Viktoria Mitlyng, NRC Region III spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

"The NRC would follow its current process for licensing a new reactor to review it. The entire process would take several years at a minimum."

The NRC does not have process specific to re-licensing a closed plant because it's never been attempted.

"During the shutdown we asked the NRC if they would ever see the reopening of the plant and they said they have never done it," Tadisch said. "But the plant is in good shape and they saw no problem with seeing it run for those 20 years or longer."

Tadisch said community efforts to prod legislators are key to garnering attention and indicating the importance of the plant.

"I'm hoping that this will proceed down the long road of getting the plant re-licensed and bringing the jobs back to the area. That's my goal," said Carlton Chairman David Hardtke. "The next steps are going to be a learning process for us, but we are going to keep pushing our legislators."

Bies, who was at the meeting in Carlton on Thursday night, said Friday he was impressed with the RGA Labs presentation.

"There are still a lot of obstacles in their way, but I think if anyone can get the plant back to working order, it's this company," said Bies, who is not running for re-election in the fall.

"There's always a first time, just because something has never been done before, doesn't mean it's impossible. I would also like to urge the state Legislature and Governor's office to get behind and support this plant."

The town is still in the assessment process on the property and the power plant.

"That is what puzzles me," Hardtke said. "If you have something you don't want to run, but there is someone who wants to run it, why don't you let them?"

When it was shut down in May 2013, Kewaunee employed 632 people, almost 10 percent of the county's workforce. About 260 are still working at the plant and 140 will remain after the next layoff in October. They are expected to remain employed through the end of 2016.